Tag: vegetable gardening

  • Pink wands of early spirea

    Pink wands of early spirea

    Spireas are generally bulletproof shrubs, easily found at most garden centres. Many of us are familiar with the ubiquitous bridal wreath variety (Spiraea x vanhouttei), blooming in early June. New cultivars of Japanese spirea (S. japonica) are popular, too. “There’s something about spirea” describes some of the best varieties of these compact, long-blooming shrubs.

    'Fujino Pink' spirea
    ‘Fujino Pink’ spirea is early blooming and hardy to Zone 5, possibly Zone 4.

    I like them all, but my favourite is the early-blooming ‘Fujino Pink’ Thunberg spirea (S. thunbergii ‘Fujino’), with its long, gracefully arching stems, each one speckled with small rosy buds that open to pale pink, five-petaled blooms. It’s not as easy to find as the others, but worth the search. Occasional pruning prevents specimens from getting too leggy and scraggly; they eventually reach about five feet (1.5 m). ‘Fujino Pink’ may not look like much when not in bloom, but that’s okay. Right now, I see a cluster of pink wands, waving in better days in the garden. 

    Praise for raised beds

    For those of you starting a vegetable garden or expanding one you already have, might I suggest a raised bed? Their benefits are numerous. Soil is easy to improve and warms up earlier in the spring. Drainage is good. There’s no need to provide access between rows — just reach across the bed to harvest or weed. Finally, a raised bed’s defined boundaries provide a sense of orderliness and purpose to what can sometimes be a sprawling enterprise.

    When we moved to our current garden (it came with a house, too) almost 18 years ago, we installed four 10 by 5 foot (3 by 1.5 m) raised beds using 1 foot x 8 inch untreated cedar boards and metal corner brackets. The boards have needed to be replaced once. This area is my horticultural playground—a joy. In the beginning, mostly cut flowers filled the beds, but now it’s a 50-50 mix of dahlias, vegetables and herbs. Nothing grand or exotic; totally manageable and always an experiment.

    Raised beds
    Boxwood surrounds the raised beds. Soaker hoses help with irrigation and stakes support the dahlias.

    Raised beds are perfect for gardeners with less than ideal growing conditions and limited space, too. Raised Bed Revolution, by Tara Nolan, is an excellent book for experienced and less-experienced gardeners, filled with building projects and planting ideas.

    Planning a vegetable garden

    Deciding what vegetables to grow, how much to plant and where your plants will be happy are just a few of the questions new vegetable gardeners might have. “How to plan a vegetable garden” covers choosing a site, preparing the soil, planting and staking, and feeding and watering. Included are recommendations for seven easy-to-grow vegetables.

    Setting a good example

    They could have sold the 25 acres to a developer. Instead, the Sisters of St. Joseph in New Orleans decided to help create one of the country’s largest urban wetlands to manage stormwater and ease the workload of the city’s current drainage system.

  • Enjoy a virtual tour of famous gardens

    Enjoy a virtual tour of famous gardens

    Gardeners enjoy spending time in their own gardens, but we also love to visit other gardens, especially botanical gardens. We take inspiration from them, discover new plants and techniques, and enjoy the camaraderie of being with like-minded friends who might be with us.

    Visits to public gardens aren’t possible now, at least not for several weeks, but a few organizations have created special virtual tours to help us keep in touch with these beautiful treasures. Here are a few online virtual tours to provide a respite from the news:

    •  Five virtual garden tours, including a stunning tropical garden in Papaikou, Hawaii.

    •  Buffalo and Erie County Botanical Gardens are in this compilation of botanical gardens in the U.S.

    •  Travel across the pond (in your armchair) to view nine grand gardens in the UK and abroad, including Highgrove, Hidcote, Kew and Giverny.

    •  Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania has short videos showing what’s in bloom now.

    Longwood Gardens border
    A border of allium, camassia and aquilegia at Longwood Gardens in May a few years ago.

    •  Closer to home, the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ontario, has begun posting YouTube videos to help keep their members and visitors connected and informed. A recent clip shows how to start basil from seed.

    • Of interest to avid orchid fans: A 21-minute tour of the New York Botanical Garden’s 18th annual orchid show, which began in February but needed to close.

    We all hope to travel to our favourite Canadian public gardens soon. Here are articles to peruse for when it’s time to plan real-time visits.

    Profile of native merry bells

    Soft yellow merry bells (Uvularia grandiflora), sometimes called bellwort, is an elegant beauty in the spring garden. Plants prefer moist soil, but will tolerate drier conditions in summer. For more information on this native woodland plant, see Three Dogs In a Garden.

    More perennials for damp conditions

    Finding other perennials that will survive in soggy soil can be a challenge. (I speak from trial and error; mostly error.) More beauties to consider can be found in “16 plants for soggy soil”, many of which are native. One of my favourites on Stephen Westcott-Gratton’s list is may apple (Podophyllum peltatum).

    Your daily vegetable gardening fix

    Author and gardening expert Mark Cullen and son Ben in Ontario are posting daily videos — Mark from his greenhouse, Ben from his suburban garden — as they get ready to plant their vegetables. Lots of tips for new and experienced gardeners.

    No rush to fertilize

    Timing is everything, they say, and that’s the case with fertilizing, too. “When to apply fertilizer” cautions against feeding too soon.

    Who’s sustaining whom?

    Many of us are at home, seeking every opportunity to get into our gardens for exercise, therapy, solace, distraction, a sense of purpose, fresh air, quiet or whatever we might need that day. In “Porch postulating on 45 years in one garden,” Bob Hill reflects on his relationship with his garden in Indiana. “Nobody gets a 45-year do-over,” he writes while regarding the trees he planted years ago.

  • Hello, hardy hellebores

    Wide ribbons of rosy-coloured hellebores are weaving through our shady border as the crocus and snowdrops recede. Now that most of last year’s spent leaves have been removed, their nodding flowers on strong stems can be better appreciated. I visit them daily.

    I was late to the hellebore bandwagon for two reasons. First, they’re rather pricey perennials. Young plants need to bulk up before they start to bloom, adding to the cost of production.

    Secondly, I assumed they required coddling, not my strong suit in the garden. This proved false as I began to add a few at a time in our Zone 6 garden where snow cover is iffy, greedy mature tree roots suck up moisture and nutrients, and the soil is clay. (In other words, the nemesis of many plants: dry shade.)

    Those few plants, mainly cultivars of Helleborus orientalis, added more than a dozen years ago have thrived. Each year, I usually buy one new cultivar — especially if it was bred to have upward-facing flowers — for what has now become known as the hellebore border.

    Hellebores
    Hellebores are long bloomers and deer-resistant. Also known as Lenten roses, they’re members of the buttercup family.

    There is a slight downside to this modest success: Happy hellebores set an enormous amount of seed with an amazing rate of germination. I now rigorously deadhead them and thin out thick patches of seedlings every summer to give other plants in the border a fighting chance.

    Hellebores and seedlings.
    A glimpse of the hellebore bed taken a few years ago. Note the crowd of seedlings on the right.

    “Unpredictable Hellebore Seedlings” suggests ways to use a bounty of seedlings.

    • An interview with Judith Knott Tyler, who wrote Hellebores: A Comprehensive Guide, and Margaret Roach of A Way to Garden.

    Timely book on saving seeds

    It’s likely more gardeners will be growing food and flowers from seed this year, and with that may come an increased interest in saving seed for next year’s garden. Saving Seeds: A Home Gardener’s Guide to Preserving Plant Biodiversity is a handy new book by Dan Jason, owner of Salt Spring Seeds in B.C. The compact guide introduces readers to the process of harvesting and storing seed, and offers encouragement to those involved with Seedy Saturdays and other seed-saving organizations.

    To enter our draw for a copy of Saving Seeds, fill out the entry form.

    Published by Harbour Publishing; 96 pages; $14.95.

    How to spring into action

    It’s always important to take it slow when starting spring chores  — advice for you, not your garden. This year, exercising caution is more important than ever; health-care professionals won’t be available to help your pulled ligaments and sore backs for some time. 

    “Stretches for Gardeners Really Help” provides tips on how to limber up. Take care.

    Go vertical with vegetables

    Gardening in a small space or on a balcony or patio doesn’t mean you need to forego planting a mini Victory Garden this year. Grow vertically with your vegetables. Niki Jabbour tells you how in “Vertical Vegetables Save Space.”

    Update on community gardens

    For Ontario residents who wish to voice their opinion on the shuttering of community gardens due to COVID-19 restrictions, here’s a website to consult.

    Tune into a podcast

    When you’re out for your daily walk (alone, of course), take your phone and ear buds and let a gardening podcast keep you company. Donna Balzer, of Qualicum Beach, B.C., has eight podcasts available for download on her website Helping Gardens Grow. Topics include: growing citrus in the north; growing greens in a small space; and tomato growing tips. 

    In fact, my news feeds and inbox have been inundated with tomato growing tips, advice, taste test results and recommendations. We will all have a bumper crop if we follow even half of everyone’s recommendations.

  • A boost for vegetable gardening

    A boost for vegetable gardening

    Now is a good time to revisit the concept of Victory Gardens, the vegetable plots planted in Canada during the Second World War to provide fresh fruit and vegetables, as well as demonstrate patriotism and solidarity. We could do with some solidarity.

    Honestly, the one tiny bright spot in the news feeds, social media posts and messages I’ve read during the past week is that online seed and plant ordering is strong. (But like so many of us who are coping and pivoting as best as we can, some seed houses have needed to halt online and phone orders because of high demand.) People who may have never gardened before are searching for vegetable gardening guidance through YouTube videos and Twitter chats. Maybe you have started fielding questions from neighbours, children or grandchildren with a newfound curiosity about growing food. Here’s your opportunity to offer help and encouragement.

    vegetable gardening
    Interest in vegetable gardening is on the rise.

    On a related note about Victory Gardens: For a personal account of how gardening helped one woman cope with the death of her husband, I can recommend a book published last fall, A Victory Garden For Trying Times, by Debi Goodwin, a friend of mine.

    Seed-starting advice

    Depending on where you garden, it will soon be time to start seed for warm-season crops, such as tomatoes, peppers and eggplants, either indoors under lights or in a sunny window. Other vegetables, such as carrots, beets, radishes, lettuces and beans, are fine for direct-sowing into prepared garden beds or large containers once the soil is warm and the threat of frost has passed. 

    For resources on growing from seed:

    •  Starting seeds indoors provides step-by-step instructions and tips for annual vegetable and flower growing. There’s also a pdf at the end of the article you can download for future reference or for sharing with others.

    Starting seeds outdoors is the companion piece with tips on sowing annual flower and vegetable seed directly into garden beds.

    •  Seeds of Diversity, a Canadian organization dedicated to conserving agricultural and horticultural biodiversity, has compiled a list of seed companies to order from. If you’re looking for a particular type of vegetable seed, there is a way to search for places that sold that seed in the past, which means it may be offered again this year.

    DIY seed tapes

    Using a seed tape allows the even spacing of tiny seeds, thereby eliminating the need for thinning. This method of sowing is also helpful for gardeners with arthritis or other mobility issues. Most large seed companies offer readymade tapes for certain vegetables, but there are ways to make your own. Could this be an afternoon project for parents with children who are now looking for something—anything!— to do? Here are two sites to check out (here and here), but you can find several more when you search “make your own seed tapes.”

    Contest for new book on natural gardens

    There are just a few days left to enter our draw for a copy of the new edition of Planting the Natural Garden, by Piet Oudolf and Henk Gerritsen, about using native and naturalistic plants in the garden. Deadline: March 31.

    Lose yourself in leaf shapes

    An article in Smithsonian Magazine describes in fascinating detail the genetics that go into creating the unique cup-shaped leaves on carnivorous plants. Put the scientific part of your brain in gear for this one.

  • Niki Jabbour’s Veggie Garden Remix says, “Try this!”

    Niki Jabbour’s Veggie Garden Remix says, “Try this!”

     Niki Jabbour's Veggie Garden Remix book cover 2018Niki Jabbour’s book, Veggie Garden Remix, encourages food gardeners to try something new. The book’s cover promotes “238 New Plants to Shake Up Your Garden and Add Variety, Flavor, and Fun.” This is the third book for the Nova Scotia-based best-selling writer whose The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener has 84,000 copies in print.

    The theme of Niki’s latest book shows us that there’s much more to vegetable gardening than the standard tomatoes, cucumbers and beans most of us grow. “There is a world of diversity available to gardeners, if we just take the time to look,” she writes.

    The book’s “Like this? Then try this!” format gives gardeners the confidence to select a few new varieties, and Niki’s clear, helpful growing techniques, troubleshooting tips and harvesting advice make the book useful for seasoned vegetable growers as well as those new to gardening. Historical background on some of these global crops along with luscious photos help illustrate that these unusual varieties not only taste wonderful, but look great, too.

    Buy the book

    Published by Thomas Allen & Son in Canada and Storey Publishing in the U.S.

    Order Veggie Garden Remix from ChaptersIndigo.ca

    Order Veggie Garden Remix from Amazon.ca

    Order Veggie Garden Remix from BookShop.org (only in U.S.; support independent book sellers)

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